Chapter 110 - 108. Marriage II

Third person POV

Lu Ping was directly sent by Weisheng to protect Hong er from any harm. But he had another motive other than that. He wanted to see Hong er's reaction when she was told that she would be an empress of another country. He knew that Weisheng was undercover as Sheng ge to court Hong er and that's why he wanted to know if she would be happy to be an empress and decided to forget Sheng ge.

But her reaction was different from what he expected, it seems like she wanted to reject the offer of being an empress but she was hesitant to reject it too. Then he noticed that she kept spacing out and sometimes she stares at Xu Tingfeng and Bai Huiqing. For a genius advisor like him, it was easy to guess what bothered Hong er.

Lu Ping: ' So she didn't want to marry His Majesty but she can't reject an imperial edict because of her family. What a filial daughter.'

Even though he stared at her with a smile on his face, Hong er shivered under his stares. It felt like everything inside her mind was being read by Lu Ping and it was similar to Lan Qingshan when he was teaching. Lu Ping noticed the slight changes in Hong er's eyes, he only smiled at her and continued to speak.

Lu Ping: " The dower will arrive in 5 days. We have an urgent matter to do so we left the other entourage that carried the dower from the capital of Da Qi. Please forgive us for the delay and here is the list of the dower."

Lu Ping bowed his head towards the three of them and handed a black and golden scroll to Xu Tingfeng. Xu Tingfeng unrolled the thick scroll and the end of the scroll rolled down until it bumped onto Hong er's foot, that shows how many the dower Weisheng gave to Hong er. Xu Tingfeng had expected Weisheng to do all of these things to marry Hong er but he didn't expect that Weisheng would go all out on the dower. Even Bai Huiqing almost collapsed after she read the list of the dower, her personal maid managed to catch her before she fall.

Just by looking at the length of the scroll, Hong er knew that it was no joke. She was aware that Da Qi was very wealthy and powerful thanks to the new emperor. He had made an alliance with Xi Bei the moment he ascended the throne, Xi Bei was well known in sea products and their fur coats since their country was at the northern part of the continent. Xi Bei's economics state and wealth suddenly risen and acc.u.mulate for these 13 years and now they became one of the richest countries in this continent. But despite their acc.u.mulating wealth, their power in military was not very good and that was one of their reasons in alliance with Da Qi. Da Qi was famous for their military forces and their mining products, they created great weapons with their high quality material.

Meanwhile, Da Chu was famous for their textile, herb and holy land. Many ancient and holy places were in Da Chu like Thousands Beasts Forest and Mountain of Goddess. Especially Mountain of Goddess, it was the place where the legends said that the Goddess of Light had descended from the heaven to visit the earth when there was a calamity where creatures suddenly found dead with unknown disease. She poured half of her power into the mountain and spread it all around the world from the ground, her light power stabilized the dark power and the world went back to its peace. Furthermore, her power had attracted many spirits to stay around the mountain and it results the land around the mountain to be very fertile.

Since Da Chu was the nearest to Mountain of Goddess, the highest quality of herb likely to grew around the mountain. Even if it was in winter, every kind of herbs would still grew even though the herbs were supposed to grow in summer.

Xu Tingfeng could only sigh and facepalm himself while reading the dower list.

Xu Tingfeng: ' This kiddo wants me to go bankrupt. And I only just read a quarter of the dower. My god…'

The keen eyed Lu Ping noticed Xu Tingfeng's concern, he slowly approached Xu Tingfeng and whispered in his ears. Xu Tingfeng slightly leaned his ears to listen to Lu Ping.

Lu Ping: " His Majesty said that you can just use part of his dower as dowry."

Xu Tingfeng touched his chin with his finger and nodded his head in agreement. Hong er who was standing on the side was baffled by Xu Tingfeng and Lu Ping's close relationship, she never seen Xu Tingfeng being too friendly to anyone from Da Chu, rather than that, Xu Tingfeng's friends were most likely live in different country. Sometimes he went to some hidden places to meet up with friends and have a drink with them, his friends always gave gifts or letters to Hong er and greetings to Bai Huiqing.

Usually Hong er was very patient in everything but seeing his father's expression after reading the dower list made her worry. She picked up the other end of the scroll that bumped onto her foot and read it, her body immediately froze after she read three lines of the list. She robotically turned her head and stared open mouthed at Lu Ping who was smiling at her.

Hong er: " Ex-excuse me, I-I think you had make a mistake."

Lu Ping: " No, we aren't, Miss Xu. This had been checked 3 times and by the emperor himself."

Hong er was once again dumbfounded by this Da Qi emperor's action.

Hong er: ' Does he has nothing to do? Is there something behind this? Is he trying to provoke Da Chu's emperor?'

Hong er tried hard to find a reason behind the enormous amount of expensive things in the list. She scrunched her eyebrows and continued to read the list, even the list was written in golden ink. Hong er couldn't bear looking at the list anymore, these kind of extravagant things were not suited for her. She couldn't accept all of the dower as she felt that she wasn't worth as much as the dower. Hong er rolled back the scroll and took it from Xu Tingfeng's hand and handed it over to Lu Ping. The puzzled Lu Ping only look fixedly at Hong er without having any intention to take the scroll from Hong er's hand.

Hong er: " My apologies Lu Gongzi. I can't accept this dower, this is too much for someone like me. I will still marry His Majesty even if he didn't give me this much of dower. Please take it back."

( A/N: Gongzi = son of nobility.)

Lu Ping's smile grew bigger and he chuckled, he expected that she would jump up and down from happiness after seeing the list of the dower. Usually most of the girls would be elated if they were given expensive accessories but Hong er's really a special one. He was very satisfied that Weisheng had chosen such a humble girl as the love of his life and as his empress, she would be a great leader for the people. Lu Ping shook his head to reject Hong er suggestion.

Lu Ping: " No, Miss Xu. You have to accept this dower or else…"

Lu Ping looked downwards in contemplation. Hong er became anxious when Lu Ping suddenly stopped in the middle of his sentence.

Hong er: " Or else?"

Lu Ping: " Or else His Majesty will add more things into the dower."

Hong er stood in silence. She really didn't get what this Da Qi emperor's mind, she started to think that he was crazy.